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HP has already had several years of experience with the Pavilion Gaming series, and last year we were pleased that the mid-range gaming solutions of the US company were getting better and better. However, Pavilion Gaming 2017 had its disadvantages such as not so good display quality with low color coverage and presence of the eye-harmful PWM. We hope they have learned from their mistakes and that these issues have been eliminated with the new model.

The good news is that this is not just a refresh, but the changes are fundamental – not only does the new Pavilion Gaming sport a new chassis but now also turns its head to the high-end range thanks to its GTX 1060 Max-Q configurations.

What’s in the package?

In the package, you will find a 135W power adapter, if your configuration boasts a GTX 1050, 150W for 1050 Ti or 200W for the models with GTX 1060 Max-Q.

Design and construction

As we’ve already mentioned, HP Pavilion Gaming 15 2018 looks completely different compared to its predecessor and this is definitely good news in our case. So far, the Pavilion Gaming notebooks looked more like repainted elegant machines, whereas the new model employs a more aggressive appearance with sharp edges and motifs typical of the gaming segment.

The most appealing novelty in the Pavilion Gaming design is the removal of the thick bezels around the screen or replacing them with thinner ones to be more precise – just like Lenovo Legion Y530 and ASUS ROG GL504. This is an amazing trend we have been looking forward to in the past few years. Here’s how it affects the size of the notebook:

Width

Length

Height

Weight

HP Pavilion Gaming 15 2018

365 (-3%)

257

25.4 mm

2.30 kg

HP Pavilion Gaming 15 2017

378

252 (-2%)

24.0 mm (-6%)

2.21 kg (-4%)

The thinner bezels make the laptop thinner, although its predecessor outperforms it in all other aspects. Let’s not forget, however, that Pavilion Gaming 15 2018 is far more powerful so the minimal increase in length and thickness is more than justified.

Although the main order of the day for the chassis is plastic, the main panel around the keyboard is metal which enhances the stability of the body when using the computer.

The keyboard features big and comfortable keys – our only complaint is about the arrows and more precisely the Up and Down ones located right next to each other, whereas their total area is equal to the standard one for the other buttons. There is a NumPad that is also comfortable to use. Additionally, the trackpad is quite wide (11.5 cm), making it very convenient to handle and use gestures.

The notebook lid doesn’t attract fingerprints but such easily appear on the Palm rest area so you will have to clean it from time to time, if you insist on cleanness.

Display quality

HP Pavilion Gaming 15 2018 has a Full HD panel with a model number AUO B156HAN08.2 (AUO82ED). Its diagonal is 15.6-inch (39.62 cm), and the resolution – 1920 х 1080 p. Also, the screen ratio is 16:9, its pixel density – 142 ppi, and pixel pitch – 0.18 х 0.18 mm. The screen turns into Retina when viewed at distance equal to or greater than 24″ (from this distance one’s eye stops differentiating the separate pixels, and it is normal for looking at a laptop).

The viewing angles are comfortable. We offer images at 45° to evaluate image quality.

The measured maximum brightness of 338 nits in the middle of the screen and 330 nits as an average for the whole area, with a maximum deviation of 5%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen is 7690 K – very close to the optimal for the sRGB standard of 6500K. The average color temperature through the grey scale before profiling is 7540K.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from uniformity perspective. In other words the leakage of light from the light source.

Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color sensitive work. The contrast ratio is okay – 1260:1 (1060:1 after profiling).

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction of the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people in HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of Pavilion Gaming 15 2018 with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 9 ms. This is one of the fastest panels we’ve ever tested.

PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

HP Pavilion Gaming 15 2018 does not use PWM to control monitor brightness which makes it safe to use in the viewed aspect.

Blue light emissions

Installing of our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Conclusion

HP Pavilion Gaming 15 2018 has a Full HD display with comfortable viewing angles, high brightness, and good contrast. Additionally, it boasts high color gamut coverage, and it does not use PWM. As regards response time, the panel is one of the fastest out there – great for hardcore gamers.

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Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Health-Guard

THealth-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

Drivers

Battery

Pavilion Gaming 15 2018 is available in configurations with two different batteries in terms of capacity – 52.5Wh and 70Wh. The model we have is equipped with the larger one.

Now, we conduct the battery tests with Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with.

Since we’re testing a sample, the results of the retail units may be different.

For every test like this, we use the same video in HD.

We use F1 2017’s built-in benchmark on loop in order to simulate real-life gaming.

CPU

Currently, HP Pavilion Gaming 15 2018 can be purchased with Core i5-8300H or Core i7-8750H, and this time we recommend choosing the more budget processor as its performance is enough for you to run all titles we can expect in the next few years, and before 8300H turns into a “bottleneck”, one such will turn out to be the GPU in the configuration. Also, you cannot use an external GPU due to the lack of Thunderbolt port.

Since we’re testing a sample, the results of the retail units may be different.

Results are from the Fritz chess benchmark (the higher the score, the better)

Results are from our Photoshop benchmark test (the lower the score, the better)

HP Pavilion Gaming 15 2018 (15-cx0000) CPU variants

Here you can see an approximate comparison between the CPUs that can be found in the HP Pavilion Gaming 15 2018 (15-cx0000) models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which HP Pavilion Gaming 15 2018 (15-cx0000) model is the best bang for your buck.

Note: The chart shows the cheapest different CPU configurations so you should check what the other specifications of these laptops are by clicking on the laptop’s name / CPU.

Results are from the Fritz chess benchmark (the higher the score, the better)

Results are from our Photoshop benchmark test (the lower the score, the better)

GPU

While its predecessor was only available with GeForce GTX 1050, GTX 1050 Ti and Radeon RX 550, HP Pavilion Gaming 15 2018 steps up its game and adds the significantly more powerful GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q in addition to the two NVIDIA GPUs.

An AMD solution is also available – Radeon RX 560.

Since we’re testing a sample, the results of the retail units may be different.

Results are from the Unigine Superposition benchmark (higher the score, the better)

HP Pavilion Gaming 15 2018 (15-cx0000) GPU variants

Here you can see an approximate comparison between the GPUs that can be found in the HP Pavilion Gaming 15 2018 (15-cx0000) models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which HP Pavilion Gaming 15 2018 (15-cx0000) model is the best bang for your buck.

Note: The chart shows the cheapest different GPU configurations so you should check what the other specifications of these laptops are by clicking on the laptop’s name / GPU.

Temperatures and comfort

We have a new way of torturing laptops, and for gaming machines, it comprises of 100% CPU load plus real gameplay test (Rise of the Tomb Raider).

Max CPU load

In this test we employ 100% load on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average core temperature (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

Core i7-8750H

0:02 – 0:10 sec

0:15 – 0:30 sec

10:00 – 15:00 min

HP Pavilion Gaming 15 2018

2.90 GHz (B+32%) @ 77°C

2.83 GHz (B+29%) @ 84°C

2.62 GHz (B+19%) @ 86°C

Lenovo Legion Y530

3.24 GHz (B+47%) @ 94°C

3.20 GHz (B+45%) @ 94°C

2.97 GHz (B+35%) @ 94°C

Dell G5 15 5587

2.89 GHz (B+31%) @ 72°C

2.71 GHz (B+23%) @ 78°C

2.52 GHz (B+15%) @ 74°C

ASUS ROG GL504

2.59 GHz (B+18%) @ 71°C

2.64 GHz (B+20%) @ 82°C

2.46 GHz (B+12%) @ 74°C

HP Pavilion Gaming 15 2018 establishes a good balance between relatively high frequencies and safe temperature. During an extended load, the latter reaches 86°C which is not a low value, however, the frequency is almost 20% above the base one.

Real gameplay

The test here is longer. The GPU is engaged at its max performance, trying to process as many frames per second as possible.

GTX 1060 Max-Q

GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 2 min)

GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min)

HP Pavilion Gaming 15 2018

1483 MHz @ 80°C

1478 MHz @ 86°C

Dell G5 15 5587

1486 MHz @ 72°C

1484 MHz @ 79°C

HP Omen 15 2017

1367 MHz @ 73°C

1362 MHz @ 76°C

HP Pavilion Gaming 15 2018 performs significantly better compared to the last year’s Omen 15 model when it comes to frequency but at the same time maintains a higher GPU temperature.

Verdict

As we revealed in the title, HP Pavilion Gaming 15 2018 turned out to be a far stronger contender in the battle between the best gaming mid-range laptops along with ASUS ROG GL504 and Lenovo Legion Y530.

In terms of design, Pavilion Gaming 15 2018 shows supremacy over almost all gaming notebooks mainly due to its super thin bezels. We can also say positive things about the aggressive design, as well as the rigidity of the construction.

However, many gamers don’t put aesthetics first and this is perfectly understandable. However, here comes the moment to mark the second serious step forward – the high-quality 144 Hz IPS screen. In addition, thanks to our Design and Gaming profile, the ColorChecker color deviation is only dE = 1.7, and the color gamut covers almost all colors in the sRGB range. What’s more, the brightness and contrast are very high, and PWM is not used, which will be good news for those who intend on playing games all night long (however, we recommend using our Health-Guard profile in these cases).

The only major drawback remains short battery life, although there are not many users that are going to use Pavilion Gaming 15 away from a plug.

Cons

Short battery life

Lack of Thunderbolt port

Author: Simeon NikolovEditor-in-Chief at Laptopmedia.com. One of his main duties is to analyze and test all of the new and exciting mobile devices.

Author: Kroum NikolovAn engineer with over thirty years of experience in the realm of electronics. High technology has always been an integral part of his life, driving him to constantly face the challenges it presents head on.

We didn’t have the chance to test it but it strongly depends on what SSD model the Pavilion is getting in your region. If you’d like, you can ask the store from which you’re getting the notebook about the SSD model and I’ll take a look in our database to tell you more about its performance. BTW, we’re preparing an M.2 SSDs ranking page 🙂

Hello!
Our monetization is based solely on Google ads and affiliate links – we don’t write paid reviews. Also, we get the laptops from an online store with which we have an agreement to give them our display profiles, free for their customers. Sometimes, companies send us laptop samples too but we’ve clearly shown that this won’t change our opinion (that just helps them getting the review earlier) – if they stop, we’ll just keep taking the laptops from the store.

We haven’t signed an NDA or another type of contract with any company! Therefore, we don’t really care which laptop brand will be the best-selling one, as long as our readers use our affiliate links they’ll support our work and we’ll keep testing everything we can.

I know that almost all of the review sites work together with the manufacturers and can’t be 100% unbiased but we are, we’ve taken the hard way. We want to build a clear and transparent community and this is why your comments are important to us. We’d like you to help each other and we want to help you too, as much as we can.

All laptop review sites are, probably why most people don’t trust or read the media / press anymore unless done by independent journalists. You cannot objectively test without bias when money involved. You’re never going to be as harsh as a critic as someone who spent $2k of their hard earned cash. And it has been shown in the past review sites getting models with better components than actual retail units.

Basically don’t trust any review unless they said they spent their own money on it and even then seek and verify with secondary opinions.

I wish more laptop review sites were more transparent about this fact in the beginning of every article as a disclaimer.

Hello!
Our monetization is based solely on Google ads and affiliate links – we don’t write paid reviews. Also, we get the laptops from an online store with which we have an agreement to give them our display profiles, free for their customers. Sometimes, companies send us laptop samples too but we’ve clearly shown that this won’t change our opinion (that just helps them getting the review earlier) – if they stop, we’ll just keep taking the laptops from the store.

We haven’t signed an NDA or another type of contract with any company! Therefore, we don’t really care which laptop brand will be the best-selling one, as long as our readers use our affiliate links they’ll support our work and we’ll keep testing everything we can.

I know that almost all of the review sites work together with the manufacturers and can’t be 100% unbiased but we are, we’ve taken the hard way. We want to build a clear and transparent community and this is why your comments are important to us. We’d like you to help each other and we want to help you too, as much as we can.

I’ve had this laptop for about a month, I swapped out the octane drive a and hdd for a samsung pro nvme and a sata ssd. At first I thought this laptop was a bargain and great, it originally ran ok and not to hot. This soon changed and it began hitting 98C. Where HP lets its self down is customer service, its not existent, quite possibly the worst I have experienced because of this I would highly not recommend this product. I also have a email chain between myself and hp if anyone wants to help to where the end point was the complaints case owner was unable to resolve my issue with HP UK store, because HP do not listen to their own complaints team. He basically told to complete a section 75 with my bank and write to their headoffice.